The legend of Joseph, son of the patriarch Jacob, is based on the account in Genesis. The present text is a translation into Arabic from one of the many Syriac versions. There are 20 MSS from Mt. Sinai in The Schøyen Collection. Besides the monastery's own famous library (4300 MSS), only British Library (8 MSS) and The National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg (60 MSS, mostly fragments), have comparable holdings.